Contract Question Aircrew Rescue Swimmer same as aircrew?

[Haasino]

Originally Posted by AGravelle

My main concern with AIRR is the full process.

All Aircrew rates involve a ~2 year training pipeline that sees a lot of Sailors fail out or DOR (Quit) along the way. Even once you get through Fleet Replacement training, you've got ~12-18 months of on-the-job training to get positionally qualified. Is it hard? Absolutely. Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!

For some reason, the Navy decides to make the rate Spec. Ops. Why?

We all have no idea... why they didn't just make a helo crewman rating and a swimmer rating, I have not a clue.

As a born bread water fed kid that lives on the west coast, I want to guarantee that I am the swimmer in the water, and not the door man. How do I do that?

You can't... you're gonna be a helo crewman... aka "door man"... for 98% of your career as an AWR or AWS. Unless you end up an AWS in one of the ~3-4 dedicated SAR squadrons, you will carry out the majority of your days doing Vertical Replenishment, Anti-Submarine Warfare, counter-narcotics and counter-piracy operations, and everything else related to standard Navy helo operations. You will also train and maintain proficiency as a Rescue Swimmer... but you're only actually going to act as a swimmer if a pilot or another Sailor ends up in the water. Fortunately, that's not common.

I realize the open endedness of my questions, and I am open to any and all constructive criticisms.

^ Responses in black...

Just to clarify, none of what I say related to AIRR is meant to belittle or denigrate Aviation Rescue Swimmers... make no mistake, you will be elite and trained to save lives. That being said, however, I saw more than a few RSS Candidates who joined to spend their days doing this:



...and ended up either failing the intellectually-challenging curriculum of AW(A1) "A" School, or DORing because they found out they were going to be spending their days doing this:

[AGravelle]

Thanks for the info Haasino. Either way, that last picture looks like the best view in the Navy.